|  Anyone who's watched the trials and tribulations of Formula 1 over the last few years knows that Bernie Ecclestone usually keeps to himself. But if you provoke him, he'll always say exactly what he thinks -- and it's usually more than you'd hoped for. That appears to have happened yet again after Ferrari head Luca de Montezemolo told a group of journalists that he thought it might be time for Bernie to step down, give the F1 teams more money and stop holding races in far-flung places "just because they have a nice skyline."
More specifically, Montezemolo said "In terms of revenue, we want to know more about them. Theoretically, like in other professional sports, like basketball in the USA, we can have a league made by us and appoint a good league manager to run our own business. Because it is our own business." Ecclestone's reply essentially amounted to: "Shut up." He said that Ferrari's loyalty was bought during the breakaway threat of a couple years ago, when the teams threatened to leave F1 over a dispute with the new Concorde Agreement. Ferrari was the first one to break rank, and Ecclestone says that was done because Ferrari was promised about "$80 million more when they win the constructor's championship."
As for revenues, Ecclestone said that Ferrari, like any other team, can check the books whenever it wants. And as for far-flung races, with CVC Capital Partners still in huge debt from buying into the series, the number-one goal now is to go where the money is. That probably means more races in Asia than Europe, and more nice skylines for the time being. As far as we're concerned, if it brings more passing, we're on board.
[Source: Autosport]
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